Why Cairo

Each year, AFTS advisory board is select the host city for its November summit. We look at deal flow and innovation in various tech hubs, discuss ecosystems we hope to support, and analyze which cities our stakeholders would be most interested in visiting.  This year, a highly-dynamic contender emerged.

In 2020, as VC tech deals shrunk across the world and the continent, Egypt saw a 19% rise in investments and recorded more deals than any other Africa country (86). And the trend shows no sign of abating—in June 2021 alone Egypt had more funding activity than the entire year of 2020.

Although Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria—the incumbent giants of African fintech—still lead in terms of deal value, Egyptian entrepreneurs and investors are positioning their bustling capital city as a major innovation center for the continent. 

When we talk about “African fintech,” North Africa is sometimes seen as separate. But innovators on both sides of the Sahara–never ones to be limited by false boundaries–are changing this paradigm, creating unprecedented opportunities and proving yet again that cross-market collaboration can create a continental ecosystem that is even greater than the sum of its parts.  

The AFTS Advisory Board hopes to contribute to this evolution by bringing people, ideas, and capital from across Sub-Saharan Africa, MENA, and beyond to Cairo this November for the 6th Africa Fintech Summit.